According to the court’s ruling, the musicians – Ian Gillan, Ian Paice and Roger Glover – should have obtained a license from the all-Russian NGO, “Russian Authors’ Society” for the public performance of any of their songs. The organization represents the rights of foreign performers in Russia – even without these performers giving the NGO permission to represent them.

For every “unlicensed” song, the court imposed a penalty of 30,000 roubles (about 1,000 dollars) on the organizers of the concert for payment to the “Russian Authors’ Society” which, in its turn, is supposed to make payments to the authors – Gillan, Paice and Glover.

At least Deep Purple had their fine (to themselves, minus an admin fee, natch) forced upon them. Here's a different style of self-abuse from the US.

Wells Fargo Bank Sues Itself

In this particular case, Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium, according to Sarasota, Fla., attorney Dan McKillop, who represents the condo owner.

As holder of the first, Wells Fargo is suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which is itself.

"The primary reason is to clear title and ownership interest in a property to prepare it for sale," Waetke said in an email exchange. "So it really is not Wells Fargo vs. Wells Fargo."

The Deep Purple thing doesn't surprise me. We once had to pay such a fee (OK, it was about £30 and it was deducted from the £100 we were promised) at one of our gigs "In case we did cover versions". This wasn't a scam, it was a perfectly ordinary official pub/restaurant in the middle of town with a basement for concerts and everything.